Joel Adams, Esq., has been dead for more than 200 years. After 83 years, the Revolutionary War veteran born in the mid-18th century died on June 5, 1823.
His headstone is a carved sandstone slab nestled under the shade of a nearby tree, marking his grave site at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Worthington. After two centuries, his grave marker is still legible.
Now, for the first time in Ohio’s history, his grave will become part of a growing public database designed to identify and catalog Ohio’s 6,500 to 10,000 Revolutionary War veteran graves.
America 250-Ohio, a commission planning the state’s celebration of the United States’ 250th anniversary, is behind the effort to get all of Ohio’s Revolutionary War dead in one database. It may be the first public crowd-sourced database of its kind in the country.
“This gives us a chance to go out, explore our community, explore our state, learn more about these real people who did things that made it possible for us to be here today as Americans,” said Chris Hurtubise, the communications director for America 250-Ohio.
What is the project?
The idea originated as an attempt to name and honor Ohio’s Revolutionary War veterans, specifically 250 of them.
Commission co-chair Doug Preisse said that wasn’t enough. He wanted to find them all.
The commission piggybacked onto the efforts of the Sons of the American Revolution and the Daughters of the American Revolution, who already maintain databases of the state’s Revolutionary War dead.
To pull off this feat, America-250 is turning to the public for help. They teamed up with Terracon Consultants, a Columbus-based engineering consulting firm, to design an app for amateur grave-sleuths to use throughout the state.
The app, Survey123, has already been used 882 times by public researchers, according to Joseph Snider, the project lead for the grave project and an archaeologist with Terracon Consultants.
The project has proved popular among its early adopters, according to Hurtubise.
“It’s got a little bit of mystery,” she said. “It’s got like ‘I can do something’ and it’s just tangible. And I think that’s what makes it so exciting. And then as they learn something (they get) like that buzz when you’re learning something.”
How does it work?
On a punishingly hot day in June, Snider, described by Preisse as “the Indiana Jones of Ohio,” knelt by Adams’ grave and demonstrated the app. The person using the app records the name of the deceased, what the grave marker says, any decorative adornments, the state of the stone, its material, and more.
Snider’s father, who was born during the Eisenhower administration, was able to figure out the app after “a little coaching” on Father’s Day. Since then, he’s recorded a half dozen graves on his own, Snider said.
Surveyors are also asked to determine less obvious aspects of the marker, such as whether it’s an original or a replacement. The headstone’s material is the key to deducing this, according to Snider.
Depending on when the person died, the headstone carver may not have had access to modern gravestone materials such as marble. That means a headstone carved out of a non-native material is likely a replacement.
When Joel Adams died, it would still be some time before steamships capable of carrying heavy rock would make their way to Ohio. As such, his headstone was carved out of Ohio sandstone, according to Snider.
How can you get involved?
To get started researching these graves, Snider recommends searching the Daughters of the American Revolution’s database for graves near you and checking America 250-Ohio’s live results map to ensure the grave you’re interested in hasn’t already been recorded. Then, go out there with your phone and use the app.
Beyond just celebrating the country’s 250th anniversary, the project will also help preserve historical cemeteries, the most threatened cultural resource in the country, according to Snider.
“Part of the beauty of what we’re doing here is that when, ultimately, you can no longer read this stone and you want to know more about who is buried here. Imagine the joy in discovering that somebody a long time ago had already recorded all this, and it’s in a public library or it’s on the Internet,” he said.
Breaking and Trending News Reporter Nathan Hart can be reached at NHart@dispatch.com and at @NathanRHart on X and at nathanhart.dispatch.com on Bluesky.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Where are Ohio’s Revolutionary War veterans buried? A new effort seeks to find out
Reporting by Nathan Hart, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
